AAA/LUCHA UNDERGROUND

More Lucha World Cup News

This week it was revealed that the second day of the Lucha World Cup on 06/05 will be available on traditional PPV in the U.S., and possibly on iPPV as well worldwide. They also revealed that there will be a Men’s Lucha World Cup and Women’s Lucha World Cup. There will be eight men’s teams and four women’s teams. 06/03 will have the first round matches for both the men’s and women’s tournaments. The women’s teams will represent Mexico, United States, Japan, and Canada while the men’s teams will have three Mexican teams, two Japanese teams, two U.S. teams, and a Rest of the World team. The Lucha World Cup poster now features logos from Akebono’s new promotion Oudou and Zero-1 Japan so expect stars from those promotions to be appearing. Dorian Roldan also announced Team Mexico for the Luchadora World Cup will be Fabi Apache, Mari Apache, and a surprise luchadora. They will announce the rest of the teams on 05/09.

Pentagon & Fenix in Chicago

This weekend AAA stars Pentagon Jr. and Fenix faced off in America for Chicago based Indy promotion AAW. The match was said to have been really good and the fans gave them a standing ovation after Pentagon pinned his brother. Pentagon and Fenix have now done this singles match in Lucha Underground, in the UK, in Japan, in a couple of Mexican Indies, and now in AAW in America. They have done this singles match a grand total of zero times in AAA. Think about that for a minute. Fenix and Pentagon Jr. have been signed with AAA since 2010 (when Pentagon was known as Dark Dragon) and they have never faced each other in a singles match. Yes, they have been in tons of tag team, trios, and multi-man matches against each other, but not one singles match. The two hottest stars in their company, and two of the hottest stars in Lucha and internationally, and AAA has never even attempted to have them feud or to even face each other one-on-one. That has to be one of the most depressing fact about AAA. What excuse could you possibly have, especially now, for these two not to be feuding? Its not like AAA can’t realize how great these two are, they see that they get BY FAR the most requests for bookings internationally. Yet, they don’t care. That is either purposely holding these two down or a case of the most inept company in the history of wrestling.

Angelico Injury Update

AAA/Lucha Underground star Angelico injured his elbow at the last set of Lucha Underground tapings, after he had just returned from a knee injury, and he suffered a fractured and dislocated elbow. He is going to be out until July recovering from the injury, meaning he will miss most of the rest of the season for Lucha Underground, the Lucha World Cup, and possibly TripleMania.

Lucha Underground Season Three Extended

There has been rumors going around, following a Rolling Stones interview with Catrina, that El Rey has extended Lucha Underground’s Season Three to fourteen additional episodes, but neither El Rey or Lucha Underground have confirmed this rumor. They have added more taping dates to the schedule, however, adding June and July to the schedule that leads me to believe it is true.

Hijo del Fantasma/King Cuerno Injury Update

The injury that has been keeping AAA and Lucha Underground star Hijo del Fantasma/King Cuerno out of the ring is a back injury that required surgery to correct. He is expected to be out for a “few months”, according to Wrestling Observer, and will miss all of season three. Fantasma was making comments on Twitter about no one from AAA checking on him in the hospital so that relationship still seems strained.

Fenix vs. Jack Evans

This weekend Lucha Underground released an “Online Exclusive” match, meaning it won’t air on TV, between Jack Evans and Fenix. This is actually the first time they have ever faced each other one-on-one in the ring.

CMLL

Lucha Mexico Documentary Gets Release Date

The documentary that CMLL’s Shocker has been working on with filmmakers Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz, “Lucha Mexico,” for four years has finally gotten a release date. The film will be released on July 15th via iTunes and will focus on the careers of Shocker, Strongman (former CMLL star who has been gone for years), Perro Aguayo Jr., Blue Demon Jr., and Fabian el Gitano. It will likely be released in both Spanish and English (or at least with English subtitles).

Volador Jr. Heading to Japan

This week New Japan Pro Wrestling revealed the lineup for their upcoming Best of Super Juniors Tournament which will feature some of the best junior heavyweights in the world. NJPW had previously announced that CMLL would be represented in the Tournament and Dragon Lee had said previously that he expected to be a part of it and both Mascara Dorada and Barbaro Cavernario had been rumored to be taking part, but the only luchador taking part in the tournament will be Volador Jr. this time. Dragon Lee recently injured his knee so that may be the reason he isn’t taking part. Volador Jr. will be a part of Block B along with NJPW wrestlers Juhshin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV, Trent Barretta, Nick Jackson, Will Ospreay, Ricochet, and ROH’s Bobby Fish. We will get a chance to see a very rare match between a Lucha Underground star (Ricochet/Prince Puma) and a CMLL star (Volador Jr.) which should be a show stealer. Volador vs. Ospreay should be pretty amazing as well. Block A will feature KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi, Kyle O’Reilly, Matt Sydal, Rocky Romero, Gedo, Tetsuya Bushi, and Matt Jackson. The tournament starts on 05/21 and ends on 06/07. Outside of the CMLL co-produced FantasticaMania shows Volador has only appeared one other time in Japan. He faced Prince Devitt (WWE’s Finn Balor) in the Main Event of a show in Japan on 07/29/12 for the NWA Middleweight Title. This will be his first non-FantasticaMania tour of Japan in his career. Volador’s schedule for all of his tournament matches are below, he will be working non-tournament matches on the other days during the tour but those haven’t been released yet.
– Volador Jr., Bobby Fish, & Satoshi Kojima vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Trent Barreta, & Will Ospreay (05/21)
– Block B: Volador Jr. vs. Trent Barreta (05/22)
– Volador Jr., David Finlay Jr., Juice Robinson, & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tiger Mask IV, Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, & Yuji Nagata (05/23)
– Block B: Volador Jr. vs. Tiger Mask IV (05/24)
– Volador Jr., David Finlay Jr., & Satoshi Kojima vs. Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, & Will Ospreay (05/25)
– Block B: Volador Jr. vs. Jushin Thunder Liger (05/27)
– Volador Jr., David Finlay Jr., & Michael Elgin vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Will Ospreay, & Trent Barreta (05/29)
– Block B: Volador Jr. vs. Bobby Fish (05/30)
– Volador Jr., Ricochet, & Jay White vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Trent Barreta, & Will Ospreay (05/31)
– Block B: Volador Jr. vs. Nick Jackson (06/02)
– Volador Jr., Ricochet, & Jay White vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Trent Barreta, & Will Ospreay (06/03)
– Block B: Volador Jr. vs. Ricochet (06/05)
– Block B: Volador Jr. vs. Will Ospreay (06/06)
– Best of Super Juniors Finals: Block A Winner vs. Block B Winner (06/07)

Dragon Lee Injury Update

After Dragon Lee suffered a knee injury a few weeks ago he revealed in an interview on TV this week that he will be out for 3-6 weeks with a knee ligament strain. He said there was no tear and surgery won’t be needed thankfully, but this is likely what caused him to miss out on New Japan’s Super Juniors Tournament.

Tiger Kid Injured

At a show over the weekend CMLL star Tiger Kid suffered a scary injury when the top rope broke as he was attempting a springboard move. He was shaken up a bit but seems to be fine now and doesn’t look to have suffered anything severely damaging.

ELITE/MDA 05/15 Arena Coliseo Monterrey Lineup
1) Larry Miranda & Mini Hator vs. Erika Sotelo & Mini Difunto
2) Epydemius, Galactar, & Obsession vs. Chamaco Gurrola, Gallardo, & Golden Boy
3) Extreme Boy & Quinto Elemnto vs. Psicotico & The Beast II
4) Laredo Kid, Ninja Jr., & Ultimo Ninja vs. Flamita, Golden Magic, & Metaleon
5) Caristico, Hijo de Rey Misterio, & Negro Casas vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Mr. Elektro, & Rush
* NOTES *
– That is Electroshock in the Main Event as Mr. Elektro. AAA owns the Electroshock name. It is unclear which Hijo de Rey Misterio is in the Main Event. The original has been working some this year but there was a Hijo de Rey Misterio III that was showing up on cards before he came back. The only for sure thing is that it isn’t Rey Horus/Dragon Azteca Jr./Hijo de Rey Misterio II as he works for Lucha Underground (and is possibly still injured). The Tiago in the third match is the former Mini Charly Manson of AAA, who just left the promotion a few weeks ago, and is debuting here.

INDY & OTHER NEWS

WWE Releases El Torito

This week the WWE released former AAA & CMLL star El Torito, aka Mascarita Dorada, after nearly four years with the company. Torito was considered one of the best minis in Lucha Libre for years working for AAA (as the original Mascarita Sagrada), CMLL (as Mascarita Dorada), and Lucha Libre USA before signing with WWE. He was mainly used as a mascot and sometimes partner of Los Matadores (Primo and Epico Colon) while feuding with Hornswoggle at one point. Over the last two years or so he’s appeared on TV just a few times and a few house shows.

Kato Kung Lee Passes Away

This week rumors began to spread that Lucha legend Kato Kung Lee had passed away and those rumors spread so far that both CMLL and AAA paid respects to him publicly, but by Friday his family had gotten word out that Lee had not passed away. He was in the hospital and not doing good after suffering a heart attack, but he was still hanging on. Then before the weekend was up more reports spread that he had in fact passed away. Lee was actually from Panama and became famous as a part of a Kung Fu trio with Kung Fu and Satoru Sayama (original Tiger Mask) and then the Los Fantasticos trio in the 80s along with Kung Fu and Blackman in UWA. He was an athletic innovator as Kato Kung Lee and despite having started wrestling in the 60’s he was still a great performer all the way into the 90’s. He lost his mask to El Hijo del Santo in the late 80’s and then began a long feud with his former partner, Kung Fu, culminating in Kung Fu taking Kung Lee’s hair. Kung Lee continued to work all the way into the early 2000’s regularly, mainly with IWRG, and then on occasion all the way until 2005 when he retired.